Irene Liu Meskill died on May 18, at the McCarthy Care Center in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Born in Canton, China on June 24, 1931, she was named Chen Ruinian, and grew up in the northern city of Tsingtao, where she received her early education at a school run by Roman Catholic nuns, and was introduced to Western learning and recreation. She became adept at basketball, and later played on a women’s team which toured the Far East. Irene also became a lifelong lover of classical music. In her adult years, she was delighted to discover on the proscenium of Boston Symphony Hall, was inscribed the name of her favorite, Beethoven. In the early 1950s, she moved, first to Taiwan and then to the United States.

Irene raised a family of three children while furthering her education in Teachers College, Columbia University, majoring in linguistics. After receiving a degree of Ed. D., she began her life’s work in the Chinese language section of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia, heading the section for years until her retirement. She was known as master teacher. Irene published with collaborators a series of well-received textbooks, a revision of the last, which she was planning in the year of her death. In retirement she cultivated her skill in painting and nourished her flowering plants.

Irene leaves behind her husband, John Meskill, her three children, Tessie, David, and Marc, and her sister, Chen Ruizhi.

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